


A Place to Belong

by adastra615



Series: The Sun and Planets [2]
Category: The World's End (2013)
Genre: Elementary School, Fights, Gen, Primary School
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-10
Updated: 2015-06-10
Packaged: 2018-04-03 18:06:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4110133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adastra615/pseuds/adastra615
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Short piece about when Peter met Gary.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Place to Belong

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this one sitting around for a while. It was actually the first story I wrote for this fandom.   
>  I don't really know how grade levels are handled in the U.K., so if you see something that seems strange, let me know.

Gary King hadn't always been there. But for Pete, the years he had seemed to glow iridescent and grand.

Pete in primary had no friends. He didn't know why. His feeble attempts at friendship in the early years were laughable. They kicked dirt in his face, told him to “piss off.”

It was always "they" in his mind, a collective of split lip eight year old arseholes. Pete didn't understand. Sure he was small, maybe a little round. Little quiet, perhaps. He stuttered a bit

Then in year 4, “they” became Bobby. Bobby missing an incisor, whose clothes always stank of old smoke. “Dead mum”, the others kid whispered when Bobby wasn’t around. “Went crazy. Rubbed off on him. Don’t mess with Bobby Cranford.”

Pete hadn’t meant to. Just stepped on his shoelace, long, and untied, dragging behind him like a severed umbilical cord. That had been it. Bobby targeted Pete whenever he saw him.

Pete ducked in hallways, peeking out trying to see if the coast was clear. Biting his cheek and tasting blood, his hands shaking, knowing for sure this time, Bobby would find him.

In year 5, he met Gary. Skinny, all bones, magnetic Gary King. Pete was pudgy. According to his mum, “he just carried a little extra weight.” Gary openly said things that Pete could never fathom saying to the teacher. He carved signs into his desk, that Pete couldn’t figure out. He scared him a little. He wanted to be him a little bit, too.

The second day of that year things changed. Pete's side hurt where Bobby, all-the-while laughing hysterically, had dug a finger under Pete’s ribs, twisting until he squealed. Pete dropped his books, his maths text falling open, the pages crunching and dog-earing. Bobby gave it a kick, sending it down the hall. Pete’s sheets of neatly written homework, fluttered, the florescent lights caught the blue margins, and made his own scrawl of numbers look puny and washed out. He didn’t feel anger, not anymore, just a dropping in his stomach, and something close to his heart constricting. He bent and gathered the papers that had fallen at his feet, Bobby’s laughter still loud even at the other end of the hall.

"Look at that little shit."

Then Gary, from his new class, knelt down and picked up his pummeled book, smoothing out the pages with fingernails he had colored in with a sharpie. Pete kept his eyes on the ground.

And with a wicked grin and a wink Gary’s fingers ghosted Pete's sleeve, placing his papers and textbook into his stunned hands. Pete held his book tightly. The feel of those fingers lingered against the fabric of his blue jumper.

And off skinny, bony Gary king went cracking his knuckles.

"Oi, Bobby," he said. And when the kid in question turned, a big dumb "huh?" half formed and out of his mouth, Gary's knuckles connected with his jaw.

The hallway exploded into noise. "Fight in D-hall!" Someone shouted to Pete's left. Kids crowded the hall, jostling and pushing. Normally, Pete would have hid, but he sought the tide of bodies and backpacks and was swept forward, even elbowing and pushing to get to the elusive ring right next to the fight; reserved for the sadists hoping to show their mates the blood that splashed on to their trainers in the carnage.

Bobby dropped to his knees. His hands hiding his nose, blood dribbling in-between his fingers. “Gary!” Someone shouted from behind Pete, and then the whole blood-thirsty crowd erupted into noise, and Pete raised his hands pumping his fist in the air along with the kid next to him, but if he chanted Gary’s name he didn’t know, instead he watched, in-between the blue backpack of a 3rd year and a elbow that kept jostling up and down, for what would happen next. There seemed to be electricity all around him. He watched Gary and in his mind raised his own fists, taking on those sleek fast movements.

Bobby stood. “What the fuck!” he said, blood dripping down his chin and splattering his white jumper.

“That was for my mate, Pete,” Gary said.

“Shit. Shit. Shit.” Pete thought, but he couldn’t move, something held him in place. Mate, he’d said mate.

Bobby shifted, seeming to pivot. Pete saw his intention, lost his voice, struggled to form a word, his tongue curling, fighting, feigning, he’d stutter it if he opened his mouth. Then he locked on to that “G,” his tongue hitting the roof of his mouth, and everything falling into place. “Gary!”

Gary ducked, catching Bobby’s arm and twisting it to the side. Just as it looked like Bobby had no choice but to stop, he swung out a massive leg, catching Gary in the back of the knees, and he hit the ground, landing hard on his back. Bobby went to swing his foot back, but before he had the chance, a bigger kid pushed his way through the ring, and pushed Bobby against the wall like a rag doll, using his elbow to anchor him. With his other arm he bent down and offered Gary a hand. Pete recognized him from class.

“Thanks, Andy,” Gary said as he was hauled to his feet. “I had him, though.”

“Really looked like it,” Andy said. But there was something unspoken between those two. They could rib each other. _That’s what real mates did,_ Pete thought.

The energy of the circle died. The voices of their teacher slithering in through that strange adolescence fueled violence that had locked them all together. Kids stepped back, dispersing. But Pete didn’t move.

And when Gary, the teachers hand wrapped around the collar of his shirt, was pulled past Pete, he grinned. Gary gave him a thumbs up, that black nail stark and real in the pale dead light of the hallway.

Gary had moved smoothly, fluidly, like he didn’t exist with the same physical restraints that Pete felt pulling his very existence down. Something in Gary King defied gravity. And if anyone was going to, it _would_ be Gary King punching a fist into the crotch of Isaac Newton, a maniacal grin on his face, saying, “Fuck your gravity and your immutable laws.” Pete smiled at the thought almost laughing. Gary King was invincible.

And after that Pete wasn’t alone. Gary had a circle of friends with varying degrees of admiration drawing them into his pull. Their orbits all a little different, but that manic bright energy held them all close, uniting them even in all their differences.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Let me know what you thought. :) I know a few of you showed interest in the previous fic in this series (Unsettling Revelations) and I hope to have the sequel story up for that soon!


End file.
